Armadale, West Lothian

Thanks for all the comments. I can't believe the weather in Scotland, 27 degrees yesterday and looks the same today. Yesterday I visited three different schools - all very different. Uphall, Toronto and St JJoseph's in Whitburn. I saw a music therapy session and got to conduct the orchestra. We went to an assembly and presented certificates for brass exams. We saw the most amazing toilets ( yes really) at St Joesph's - beautifully painted with murals - have an idea....... about this.



I have met some amazing teachers and head teachers ( that is what principals get called here) and really neat kids. They are very interested in us.

Last night we caught the train into Edinburgh and went right past Edinburgh Castle. They are ripping up the main street in Edinburgh to put in trams, I wodnewr why? This is not the first place that has done this.

We are off to Pithlochery tomorrow for two nights and thenhead back to London until we catch the plane home. I think Bumble is ready to come home now, he has had so much fun adn learned so much but I think he misses school and everyone there. Hopefully he will back in time for the senior cross country.

Well best get going again we are off to Linlithgow to do some shopping.

I heard teh SING OFF was fantastic, am really sorry I missed it - did any one video it?

Miss you all - hope you remembered Mrs Donaldsons birthday last week too...

Hi there from Chipping Camden - can you find it?

I am really sorry it has been so long - we have just been so busy!! Bumble, Pauline and I have been all over right to the bottom of the country - no not the famous Land's end but "|The Lizard".

We stayed a night in Clovelly which is famous as it hasa steep street adn donekys are theonly things other than people to cart thigns up and down the hill. It is also the place where Charels Kingsley came from. Last night we stayed in Burford adn it has the most amazing array of houses. We are a day beign our plans as we satyed longer in Bath - it was 27 degrees.

In Bath I visited Jane Austin Centre - she is a famous author - do you know any books she wrote.
It was my birthday last week and I was given a beautiful book about an artist called Sue Dove, I saw some of her work and |I am going to try some out.

We will be heading off to Scotland at the end of the week and then we will be int he same place that the famous singer on Britains Got Talent is from - Susan Boyle. In fact I am visiting two schools there. The finals of Britains Got talent are this week - everyone here is talking about it - it seems really strange.

Hope the junior Cross coutnry went well and you all tried your best, the rest of you will be all training hard as well. I might be home in time to come and watch the senior one!

Keep working hard - Kakite

Bumble Bumble where have you been? I've been to L..........n to visit the Queen.

Bumble has had an amazing day. He,Pauline, Sarah (Pauline's daughter) and I took the train from Staines into Waterloo Station. We all had lunch in Covent Garden. The weather is better, we were worried Bumble would feel the cold but the temperature has improved as it is Spring here. We looked around the market and walked back through Trafalgar Square and past Nelson's Column. We walked back to Waterloo Station and were just in time for the changing of the Guard. We went past 10 Downing street, someone important lives there. (do you know who?)

Bumble was so excited about being in all these famous places that he forgot to get a photo but he also saw the L............ Eye, Big Ben ( which he felt rather overwhelmed by) and the wind picked up as we were crossing the large river that runs through L.............. and he was so pleased to be holding onto to my hand or it would have been a near catastrophe.

We had to "spend a penny" at Waterloo Station except it wasn't a penny it was 30, think that is inflation. ( You often have to pay or"spend a penny" in foreign countries!! New Zealand is lucky.)

Before we got to this huge city which is also the Capital of England we came from Zagreb having stayed in a Hotel famous for having guests of the Orient Express. It was very flash and Bumble really liked the luxurious corner room we had that overlooked the promenade. Before that we stayed in a place called Bled which was in a different country to Zagreb. It was in Slovenia. We really liked that as we had a beautiful lake to look at and we biked around it. We had visited the Castle at Bled and were enjoying a nice coffee in the sun when a tourist asked if they could take Bumbles photo. The tourist took 4 photos of Bumble with the lovely little island church in the background. Bumble hasn't stopped smiling since he was so pleased to see the look in Pauline's face as the tourist didn't ask her.

As you can probably see Bumble has been having the time of his life - I hope he settles down as we are visiting two schools on Thursday and Friday in a different country ( to the west of L............) and he needs to be on his best behaviour as he is representing all the Wai Learners from Waimataitai.

Plitvicka Lakes , can you find us?

We are in an absolutely beautiful place which is part of the National park. I saw a snake - it was about 15 cm long and it was quite fat. I was told it wasn t really a snake but a ˝blind snake˝ as it doesnt have any fangs or teeth. We were walking along havigng just finished awalk through this forest and by these very famous lakes and waterfalls and I just saw it in the grass. It gave Bumble quite a fright and I was little surprised also. At lunch today we vitisteda place with a restaurant and out the back they had two bear cubs. Their mother had been killed and they had been given special permission to keep them. I felt a little sorry for them.
Last night we stayed in a place called Split and tomorrow we are off to Bled. I have been texting lots of people but it seems that only some of their texts are getting through but I will keep texting just to let people know Bumble, Pauline and I are getting on okay. Pauline and Bumble have become quite close friends adn she ahs introduced him to anumber of people who have wanted to know about him. He squeaks away quite politely.

I hope everyone is working hard at school and having fun learning.

Z..........b

Hi we are somewhere in Croatia and it starts with Z and ends with B. We had to take 5 trains to get here coming from Riomaggiore, to Bolonga, Venice and then Villach to here and got to our hotel at midnight ' it was a long day. We were worried as our most important train was 30 mins late but believe it or not they held the train for us!! Which country is Villach in? The keyboards are different here and they were in Italy too. We had wonderful walk along the Cinque Terre - it is a beautiful walk some bits tougher than others, one art of the track was closed due to slips from rain. We also went out on a boat so I some photos just like Mrs Vincent.

Today we fly to S.........o in Bosnia Herzgovenia which I am excited about as I studied their history at school. There have been so many highlights I think Bumble has been overwhelmed with things. we will start our tour tonight meeting asll the other people. I think the Euro is great but now we ahver to deal with kuna and other things..... Can you guess what I am talking about?

Have taken photos with Bumble but so far been unable to put them on the blog, but be assured he is well looked after!!

Hope your first week gone well and that the LT3 camps were a hit.

Bumble's Big Adventure

Well our bags are packed and we are ready to go........ I think Bumble is a little nervous about the plane flight but I love flying so I will reassure him. I have never travelled with Bumble before and so far Pauline, my travelling companion, may soon be ex-friend, has been rather rude about him coming a long - I think she is jealous. I have the best of intentions to ensure Bumble regularly appears on my blog or through the email to school providing an update of our journey but I guess we will see what the reality is. Past experience tells me that finding access to the Internet when no one else wants to hog it in a hotel or an Internet cafe is easier said than done especially when you have more exciting things to explore.

We leave from the "Garden City" on Monday morning to head to the "City of Sails" where we fly out and have a stop over for a few hours in a very large city called H......g K......g. We then head to our first real destination -in a country shaped like a boot and with a lot of very famous buildings and once was the centre of a famous powerful empire. I hope to see a very well known man, even if from a distance, maybe he will give me a wave. Think that is enough clues for now.....

Term 2 2009

Term 2 2009 will be a different one for me. Not sure how I will cope actually. I guess we will find out. I am off on a sabbatical for a term , this means I am given leave to go and investigate an area of interest and refresh my self professionally and personally. So I get to be away from school for a whole term. I will find this hard as I struggle with being away a couple of days. This is part of me being a control freak I guess. Anyway I will be forced into keeping away as I will be travelling for 7 weeks beginning with a bit of refreshment in Italy and Croatia and then onto the UK where I will be visiting and meeting with people who have Nurture Groups in their schools. I heard about the concept of Nurture groups in 2006 and have continued to try and find out more since, not easy and they are generally an unknown phenomenon in NZ and I suspect because of the resourcing constraints they are not a concept that will be actively promoted. A nurture group is a group set up within the school environment to support children with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties to allow them and others to learn new skills to develop successfully in the school environment and society in general. They have been in place in the UK since the 1960's and have had huge success in supporting children to become actively and positively engaged in school overcoming many disadvantages in doing so. I look forward to seeing whether there is anyway the concept can be extended into our schools in New Zealand. I will return and write up what I have discovered in the last few weeks of the term and hopefully manage to stay away from school and let them get on with things in my absence. That might be the biggest challenge of all.